Remodel From Hell. . . . .
Sorry to all of you waiting so patiently for the last installments from our trip to Paris. We started remodeling the bathroom the last week of November and we have been in Hell ever since. The 1 week job is going on its Third week, if I can actually get them to finish the job. Wish us luck and hopefully later this week I will have more posts.
We Almost Made it Out
Last night I after running home in the rain and only wear jeans and cashmere sweater. I think I caught a bug. I woke up this morning feeling really under the weather. Clem got up early along with me and we headed out to our favorite little Patisserie to get my favorite Turkey Panini. I am in love with this place – not sure why there panini’s are so good. This will probably be our 10th visit in over 2 weeks. Of coarse this morning was no different, perfection.
After a quick breakfast we walked down the Montogieu and headed back over to the Marais district in search of some presents. Today was going to be all about buying presents and find gifts for us. We walked about 4 blocks and that icky feeling fell on my like a pile of bricks. At first I kept my mouth shut and kept walking. We stopped at the Les Halles center and took a few pictures. What’s really great about the center is they have Kids Park that is huge, I’ve never seen anything like it. Sadly I have no picture of it, every time we walked by it was closed.
We stopped at Starbucks and ordered some more coffees. I know, how American can we get? But its worth it – the flavor satisfies some itch for American. But, yet again, ordering at a Starbucks is ten times more difficult than any other café or brasserie. What’s interesting is how they correct us or the tude the throw when we ask for something they are not familiar with or we ask for it differently. I’m sorry in the states there are so many ways to order a Large Non-Fat Latte…so ordering it their exact way is just silly. Now, just to clarify, we were ordering in French. At a regular café on the street it’s so much simpler to order, and when you say something incorrectly they correct you with such a kind demeanor.
So we hit the road and headed over the Marais district. We were about two blocks into our shopping and the sick feeling was turning into a throw up feeling. I was getting worse! I tried to keep my mouth shut but I finally told Clem I was not feeling that great and I might need to head back to the apartment. We found this amazing teashop, which is a 300-year-old tea company. The store had been open for over 200. As we left the shop I decided I needed to go home. Clem walked me back to the apartment, the sky was starting to get dark again, and we had no umbrella.
On the walk back to the apartment we stopped at the Pompidou center and watched a couple of performance artists at work. One guy was doing a one mad stage play and the other was playing music on a boom box and playing a fake cello. Tied to the bow was a paintbrush, he played along with the music blind folded and painted a picture. It was pretty cool! I found this great artist and fell in love with two paintings….I procrastinated about buying one and now I am kicking myself I didn’t. I need to make that a golden rule from now on. The clouds over the Pompidou were starting to converge, I took several great shots.
We made it back to the apartment and I went to bed right away. Clem headed back out to walk around and hit a Irish Pub that Eric suggest he stop by for some better beer. Poor Clem has been drinking piss beers during most of the trip. One can only drink so much Heineken before getting sick. But then again, I don’t drink beer – It has such fowl taste, before, during and after. I told Clem it’s going to pore like crazy soon – so he should take the umbrella – he doubted me! But did take it, Not 10 minutes after he walked out the door – It started to pore like cats and dogs.
I slept for several hours luckily. Clem came back and we just hung out in the apartment for the rest of the night. Eric meet up with Chrystelle and her mother for little while and then headed back to his apartment to get some work done. Clem and Eric were up pretty late. Eric was working on a major article for Newsweek on the mayor of Paris. We stayed in for the evening and Eric brought us some Chinese food. It was pretty good; I got some simple chow mein. I am heading off to bed real early. I hope I feel better tomorrow.
How About Some Duck…..In Your Lap
We made it back to the apartment last night and made plans to do dinner with Eric and Chrystelle. Eric gave us the option of either French or Italian. Since we had some poor Italian the last two times, we opted for French. Eric suggested a famous Art Deco designed restaurant that has been open since the 20’s. The interior was amazing but yet simple.
We didn’t have reservations so we were seated in the bar area. Eric was telling us how a corporation had bought all these restaurants that were classic deco designs and long histories. So far there are about 7 in all that the company owns. When we sat down we were greeted by an older gentleman who very friendly and brought us water and our drink pretty quick.
After about a half an hour and an attempt to ask our waiter to take our order., we find out his not our waiter but runner. Finally our waiter appeared, and proceeded to take our order. I ordered a Caesar salad and a beef medallion. What was rather odd is that the waiter never looked at any of us in the face every time he talked to us or brought something. Each time he seemed to be staring off in the distance.
Our waiter seems to get worse and worse as the evening progressed. But luckily our runner seemed to be around a lot more than the waiter. Sadly our starters seem to come and numerous issues arise. We hoped the entrée’s would prove hopeful. But alas it was not in the cards, the entrée’s were worse, especially when the waiter served Clem’s Duck Entree and almost had it land in his lap. For some reason the waiter thought it necessary to serve across the table. So we were a little over it but the company was great – we chatted more and more about Paris and asked Chrystele a plevy of more questions.
Now you can always depend on dessert, I mean can anyone mess up dessert. To my surprise, this French restaurant would make it happen. I hoped ordering a crème Brule would be a sure thing. In the middle of conversation we were served, and I dipped into the Crème and took my first bite. And how can you ruin Crème Brule……..By breaking the Crème…….meaning it was over whipped and now little bubbles have for tough air pockets. It was terrible, Clem felt bad and said well send it back, I opted to not send it back because if you fail three times the pleasure to improve should not be granted! But of coarse I am going to point it out at bill time~!!!
So we left the restaurant and to our surprise the rain has come! It was nice, but I was wearing my cashmere sweater so I was being a little baby walking along the storefronts of the Champs Elisee. Sadly this was last night we were going to see Chrystelle, her mother was coming to town tomorrow and heading off to London together for holiday. We said our goodbyes and they headed back to Chrystele’s apartment and we headed back to Eric’s place. We made it an early night.
Ballerinas and Bugs
The Musee d’Orsay has its own complete collection of the Degas ballerina casts and bronzes. This collection is one of four complete collections in known existence. I have now seen all 4 collections. The other 3 collections are located at MET in NYC, National Gallery in DC. The third is still in private collection, which did tour the US 2 years ago. I took my sister and niece to see the private collection that showed at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. So I have completed another adventure in my life. I grew up loving Degas and his work and made it a mission in life to see all 4 completed casts of the Degas ballerinas.
In the third section of Musee d’Orsay, we ventured to ground level galleries. We decided to skip most of the contemporary works and explore more of the impressionist exhibits. In the lower levels there were a number of Manet’s on exhibit. Including “Le Balcon” (The Balcony) and the “”The Picnic”. What was great to see was the number of students camped out in front “The Picnic”. Working on sketches and drawings.
At the Louvre we only saw about two people working on something. In front of the picnic alone there was about 6 people. Across from “The Picnic” was a contemporary sculpture of “The Picnic” which also had 5 students sketching it. Also in this section there were a number of Degas sketches and drawings. There were a number of amazing pastels, one was a side profile of woman with the most striking red lips.
Mixed into the third section was the Art Nouveau furnishings exhibit. Let first start by saying I fell in love with all the beds. They were simply jaw dropping, from room to room the pieces were getting better and better. What I found really interesting were the fixture and hardware on show. A number of the doorknobs were in some beautiful colors not to mention shapes. Simple but very unique!
After the Art Nouveau section we finished up the remainder of the impressionist galleries. At the end were a number of Van Gough pieces. What was interesting was all the Van Gough pieces that the d’Orsay had exhibit were from a certain time frame. Van Gough was in prison right before died. When he was released he worked like crazy cranking out a number of paintings. He was averaging over 5 paintings a day and was selling that at the fraction of his normal commission. You can really see how these works were quickies! Especially compared to his earlier work that I have seen.
We finally finished our adventure in the d’Orsay. As we made our way out of the museum we glimpsed at some the sculptures in main area. We were not that impressed of the selections they made. Then at the back of the museum, hidden in a dark and poorly light area. There were a number of large-scale models showing architecture in Paris. The most amazing piece was the scale model of the Grand Opera. It was flawless, even the gilding in the main entry and parlor was authentic. I was able to get a couple of great shots.
After the d’Orsay we headed across the street to brasserie on the corner. I ordered a simple Croque and salad, while Clem ordered some soup. The weather was beginning to change today. Our clear skies and warm temps, was slowly giving way to clouds and cold gusts of wind. The waiter seemed to be on a rampage. He was running all over the place and even taking out garbage right before he serves our food. EEEK!
Then I got my Croque, which was cold and made on white sandwich bread. Then I took one bite of my salad and then went for second and I noticed little red bugs on my lettuce. I showed the waiter, and he brought me a new salad. This time I examined it and of coarse there more bugs than before. EW!!!!!!
MY PAINTING!!!!! STEP OFF!!!!!!!
After a fail attempt to see the d’Orsay gallery yesterday, we made the trek back to the left bank once again. And this time we were greeted with a rather long line. On the way to the d’Orsay we walked through the Galarie where I fell in love with the two paintings. To my surprise, I did not recognize it before! I have seen the space many times before, as it was used in several Jean Paul Gaultier shows. For those of you who do not know that name, his a fashion designer here in Paris.
As we exited the Galarie we noticed the cool staircase we saw last time we were there. This time I noticed gentleman walk into the entrance dressed in head to toe Gaultier. As we approached the entrance, to our surprise a plaque read Jean Paul Gaultier Atelier. Right outside the main entrance was the Gaultier flagship store. We continued our journey to the d’Orsay while passing through the Toulouse gardens. As crossed the left bank we came across this small apartment with it big blue door. When I say small it was tiny and skinny, I don’t think I have ever seen something that small even in New York City.
The d’Orsay is amazing; it’s a converted train station. After you have entered the front entrance, you walk into the actual train track area. Which is now the main room for the museums sculptures. I love how they created different levels to room, which lead you into a maze of galleries. We opted to start from the top – we learned our lesson over at the Louvre. Here is my advice, stop for a minute and look at your map to the museum and focus on the parts of the museum you wish to see. The d’Orsay is on a grand scale even in its collection.
The d’Orsay is a Impressionist lovers dream museum. Everything from Renoir, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, Manet, the Piszarro’s even to Lautrec. I was excited to actually see so many pieces by Toulouse Lautrec. In the first section of paintings we saw everything from Renoir to Degas, A number of the Degas were outstanding, like little girl sitting and the widow in the park. I was excited to also see Claude Monet’s “Woman with Parasol”, it was breath taking! As moved more into the collection we noticed this man completely enthralled in Alfred Sisley painting, I think walked around the room twice in 10 minutes and he was still there. And if you got close to the painting he stared you down, in a back of you bitch look.
In the second section of the d'Orsay we got to see several sketches and drawings. What is interesting is how the d’Orsay shows these pieces. They show paintings in the large rooms with natural light. While the drawings and sketches are in low light rooms with low ceilings. That’s why my photos are so dark. Clem and I came across an artist neither of us had seen before. Lucien Levy-Dhurmer painted from 1880-1920’s; the museum had 5 drawings by the artist. Two entitled “Medusa” and “the Sorcerer”, plus a portrait of “Georges Rodenbach” which is really ghostly. I think the reason we love Dhurmer’s work is its so dark and dead like.
There were two Lautrec paintings hanging before we went into the drawing and sketch rooms. The two paintings were actually billboards that use to hang in Paris. Sadly after their use, someone had chopped them up and framed them. Luckily someone went through the painstaking work of recovering all the pieces and put them back together. In the smaller rooms there were several sketches and drawing by Lautrec. Including my two favorite pieces, “Le Lit” a sketch of two kids sleeping…the colors were amazing. The second was “La Femme au Boa Noir” (Woman with Black Boa). Lautrec did very little paintings in his lifetime; most of his works were in the form of sketches and drawings.
My favorite at this point of the collection was the painting by Jozsef Rippl-Ronai entitled “Un Parc La Nuit”. I know this painting has been copied a number of times by many great impressionists. A true inspiration! I want it! LOL……..
Shakespeare & Co.
After lunch in the Jardin de Luxenbourg, we headed over to the fountain. In the fountain swam about a dozen mallard ducks and in the middle near the water spraying up was a little house with little decks for the ducks to jump up on and they could go into the house as well. We finally found a spot to sit down and enjoy the clear sky and the late afternoon sun. Everyone was facing the sun so we joined in the soak it up! We have seen several tanning salons on the right bank. I am sure this good weather is eating into their profit margin.
We hung out at the fountain for a good 2 hours. Clem stated reading his new book and the Guardian we found at a restaurant. I decided to pull out my sketchbook and give it a whirl. I started sketching Clem a little, which was starting to look good until I attempted to shade it. I am very rusty at sketching. I think this is the first time in over 7 years since I’ve picked up the pencil. After about an hour of drawing, I pulled out my laptop and worked some more on our blog entries.
This man stopped in front of us with his son in his stroller – it was too cute how he just sat in his stroller for a good 15 minutes just staring right at us. One would think this was a little creepy but check out the photo I took of him – it was too adorable. As we made our way out of the Jardin, we came across this amazing fountain. I got two great shots of it, you can see people sitting on chairs around the fountain – shield from the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet. Then out of nowhere another little boy, blond hair and all came running up behind us and screamed BOO! I laughed, I was laughing more because he had a plaid shirt and plaid jumper on and some how it was working! LOL
We finally started heading back over to the right bank and then home. While walking through the left bank, we walked the outskirts of the Latin Quarter. It was like we were in Union Square in SF. Junk shops selling cheap products and fast food restaurants. We also noticed the abundance of Greek restaurants in the area as well. There was nothing worth stopping for until we hit the river. As we are about to cross the bridge to Notre Dame, out of the corner of my eye I see the Shakespeare & Company bookstore. We walked over and started taking a couple pictures and then checked out their selection.
I asked one of the ladies working there if the had seen a certain book I had been search for in the last couple of years. (A limited edition of Alice & Wonderland with drawings by Salvador Dali.) She looked at me and says; “No we haven’t”, now mind you this store is over 200 years old and everyone working there is younger than me! Hmmmm.
Clem and I walked across the bridge to Notre Dame again. We wanted to light two candles for my brother and his wife and the twins…of coarse we light them under Joan of Arc. After we light the candles we headed back out onto the square and made our way back to the apartment. We were getting tired pretty quickly this evening. Not sure, but I was feeling a little under the weather.
On the way home we made a little pit stop. I was not about to spend 2 weeks in Paris and not find Alexander McQueen’s atelier. After wondering around the Marais for a while, we finally came to no.6 rue de Braque. As most modern designers today they ateliers are unmarked and hidden from the world. I was gitty like a little boy when we finally found it. The lights were on up in the studio and huge dark green doors were closed. It was an amazing moment. I should have knocked and asked for a cup of sugar. LOL
As we made our way back to the apartment, we stopped at some local shops and got some bread, ham and cheeses. We headed up to the apartment and started eating off and on. Eric came home and we sat and chatted for a while. He shared with us how no one really goes to the Latin Quarter anymore. It’s become the fisherman’s wharf of Paris. A huge tourist trap! So we scratched it off our to do list since we only have a couple more days left in Paris. Maybe next time, although Eric says we can die happy not visiting it ever!
I headed to bed early while the boys stayed up late catching up and of coarse talking politics. Eric has been writing a number of stories on Chirac and some well-known officials in Paris. If you’re ever interested in reading some of his work, go to the Newsweek site and search for Eric Pape. Night night!
Ooooooh AGA!!!!!!!
We set off this morning early again. Had a good night sleep over at the apartment for the first time. Our plan today was to hit the d’Orsay and then the Jardin de Luxenbourg. We hit Starbucks and then over walked down Rue de Rivoli. We stopped at a clothing store I had seen last week, called Zara. Clem found some killer leather sneakers and I rummaged through some things for my niece and the two little one’s along the way.
We got back onto Rivoli and walked up to an American bookstore for Clem to get a new book. So far he has finished two novels on the trip. My guess is if he was trying he could be done with four by now. Then we arrived at the Musee d’Orsay. Sadly the museum was closed on Mondays. We were out of luck.
So it was now onto the Jardins. We tried to walk around a little along the way, but unfortunately that area is covered with high stores and dealers. I did find a AGA store, which I was surprised to find out that they also make there own cookware and bake ware. Of coarse I took several shots of the store – even the pink range. We continued on but many stores were closed, which even in SF is typical. Most of the area around the Jardin de Luxenbourg was high-end shops and restaurants. And when I say high end I mean high end, even the one kids store we walked into was too pricey. A baby one-piece jumper was over 65euros.
Right before hit the Jardin’s, we saw a patisserie we had been to before (chain) and I said lets see if there is something closer. We made it all the way to the Jardin’s and low and behold no patisseries or even a restaurant outside of the gates. Unfortunately for us we planned on grabbing some panini’s and drinks to eat in the Jardin.
For a Monday afternoon the Jardin was bustling. I noticed less tourists in this area compared to others as well. We walked through all the chess players and cards. I think there are more players at Washington Square in NYC compared to here. The trees were slowly becoming bare sticks in the sky. Mounds of tree leaves on the ground were beginning to mulch.
Out of the corner of Clem’s eye he spotted a little restaurant in the park. We walked over to check it out. The menu was a little pricey but looked delicious. We sat down and ordered different Croque’s. When they arrived they were more like Bruchetta than croque’s. But it tasted great and it hit the spot. We made our way over to the big fountain finally and saw everyone sitting on chairs around the fountain and the outline to the Jardin.
What is amazing is there are several places in Paris where people have access to chairs to sit in, parks, water fountains and even little We have seen these places at night and the chairs remain unlocked all night. The American’s we are – we first notice how this would not happen in America. Primarily, on the fact that they would be stolen, damaged or defaced the first night. There are so many things in Paris that would never happened in America.
Clem and I chatted over it at lunch and we think the rote of the problem is that parents do not instill or teach their children how respect others and property as a whole. Now one thing that I have noticed in Paris is there is a definite problem with graffiti. It’s everywhere, store fronts, subways, untouched walls the same in America. The graffiti versus art topic has come many times during the trip. That happens a lot when we are visiting NYC as well, Sorry Shanon!
Crepes & Rembrandt's
When someone tells you need several days to do the Louvre, they are not lying. Yesterday Clem and I got up early, around 930am, the earliest yet. We stopped by Starbucks and then headed over to the Louvre right away. We decided to start from the bottom and work our way up. Viewing the French sculptures first and then on to paintings then interiors. Well the French sculptures took us over 3 hours alone.
When we arrived at the museum they were having a special exhibit of work by Gidoet, a French painter our the school of David. He was well known for his works done during the Napoleon Empire. The collection as a whole was okay, but they did a great job with the larger pieces. Two pieces I just fell head over heels with. One was of Jude being taken up to the heavens. The facial expression and body language was so powerful.
The second painting was one of Artemis (Diana) in the woods and a nymph is moving the branches of a tree to shed a beam of light down upon her. Now this is what’s interesting, Gidohet painted Artemis as a Man rather than a woman. One will notice that she is naked with no breasts and she has a wee wee. Questioning the gods sex as well as sexuality. After viewing the remainder of the collection you see how Gidohet focused his energies on the subjects eyes, facial expression and hands. In some paints the hands were almost as big or bigger than the subjects head.
In the French sculpture section I did like a few of the pieces. I loved the Saint Valarie sculpture with her holding her decapitated head and two angels on either side of her. Sadly the museum has no record of what year it completed. I also found the sculpture of a dead Catherine de Medicis by Della Robbia very striking. She is lying on her back and naked. The detail of her lifeless body is amazing, I know it sounds morbid but it was interesting and something I have never seen before. Its something you won’t see in your art history textbooks for sure.
In the garden sculpture sections there were a lot of sculptures of Artemis (Diana). Now in the museum they recognize the Roman name for the goddess, I only recognize gods as their Greek name. But every so often I did see a Greek name listed on a piece. Like the Zephyr & Psyche piece by Rutxhiel, completed in 1813. This piece was amazing, the ability to cut the marble so thin to allow light to come through the garment. Artemis was everywhere; it made me home sick to be honest.
After the Gidohet exhibit we heading up to the second floor to see more paintings. We decided to knock off the European painters from Germany, Holland, Flanders and Netherlands. Unfortunately this is not a period or countries I studied in school. Although most of the Ruebens and Vermeers. What was interesting, there were a couple of Rembrandts here and there. Definitely out of place.
After we left the Louvre we had plans to have dinner over at our friend Chrystelle’s apartment. She has told me so much about how she over looks a convent and its huge private park. When we arrived she immediately showed us the view and the sunset. It was beautiful, an amazing view, but I noticed that the garden was not well kept at all which is rather sad. No perennials and the grass was sparse or dead. But the view was amazing. Unfortunately a huge apartment building blocks her view of the Eiffel tower.
For dinner, it was going to be a crepe party. Chrystelle has this little hot plate designed for making 6 crepes at one time. And of coarse there were six of us. Chrystelle’s sister Valerie joined us and another friend of Eric’s who does photography and is an editor. We had a blast and me being the American I made a big mess. I’ve never made crepes before – well maybe back in college.
After dinner we headed back to the apartment with Eric and he showed us the Gates of Paris. Which are two enormous pillars with bronze statues on top. Flanked by two building which are now apartments. The sad part is the gate is not presented as landmark rather it just sits there unattended. Its really sad. They were beautiful.
Goodbye Nice, Hello Sofia Coppola
Last night, we didn’t get to sleep until around 230am again. I am not sure why we are going to sleep so late. Maybe taking little naps in the afternoon are not a good idea. Clem’s parents came knocking to say goodbye, we were bummed we missed breakfast with them. They were off to Milan with their cousins Jim & Paulette. They are supposed to also have another couple (cousin’s) come down by train to Milan so they can all see the city. They are leaving tomorrow to fly back to Oregon.
After we both got up, we packed and headed down to the port. We hung out at a little restaurant on the water for over an hour until our flight. The weather was amazing, wearing shorts and a t-shirt it was still in 70’s with a slight breeze coming off the ocean. We sat and wrote postcards and mailed a few. My sister sent us pictures last night of my niece Ashley’s first weekend down with my sister and her papa. She got a big pink beach bike. She looked great on it, I hope she is doing well. We are sending her several postcards from Paris.
At the airport we sat for a while waiting for our flight. I started to get caught up on all our blog entries. We left Nice around 5pm and flew back to Paris. We’ve decided to actually head home early. Clem has to work on the Monday we get back. We are flying home on Friday rather than Sunday so we have the weekend to catch up on our sleep. I think when we land on Friday, lots of COFFEE will be needed in order to stay up until real bed time.
After we landed in Paris we headed back to the apartment where we were greeted by Eric & Chrystele. Before we headed up to the apartment I wanted to stop at the patisserie to buy some bottle water. As we walked past Eric’s apartment, we passed a couple waiting for a table at the little restaurant out front. What caught my eye was two ladies sitting on the curb waiting for a table and one woman was wearing these cute ballet slipper shoes which I guessed were Chanel. Then I looked at her face and my jaw dropped, it was Sofia Coppola. (An amazing director/writer and daughter to Francis Ford C.) I stopped and showed Clem real quick and opted to not pull a starfucker moment. She looked so cute on the curb and so in her element. Sadly my patisserie was closed so no water ☹
We walked up to the apartment said our hello’s. We sat down and started to share our stories about the trip to Nice. And we continued to ask more questions about what culture and phrases we didn’t understand. I started to tell Chrystelle about how we saw Sofia down on the street waiting for a table. She promptly responds, “oh yes, she is here filming right now out at Versailles. She’s filming a movie about Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst.
I then made my birthday call to my mom, I was about to do it from Nice but then I realized it was 2am and that would not be nice. She said she was just getting ready for my dad to take her out and buy a new bicycle. Too funny, she also has wanted a big beach bike to ride around on. Her mission was to find a yellow one. Back when I was a kid she and my dad had 10-speeds, his was burgundy and my mom’s was yellow. I hope they have one! I wished her happy birthday and was bummed I wasn’t there to celebrate it with her. But I am on the hunt for some fabulous gifts though.
After the call, all four of us headed out for dinner. We headed back to the Marais district again. Eric was taking us to another great French cuisine restaurant. As we walked along I saw two building with Demolition signs on them. Chrystelle said “it was very rare that building were to be torn down”, it made me sad. We came up on a restaurant that had several couples waiting for tables. I looked at the food at some of the tables and it looks delicious.
Eric walked over to the headwaiter and turned on the French charm. We were seated within 5 minutes of arriving. As we sat outside, the weather was perfect, clear night sky and just a gentle breeze of cool air coming down the street. Then came the food, I had a crawfish salad for a started which was so good. Clem had a cured sausage meat with a German potato salad which was so good, of coarse not better than mom’s and mine. LOL – Then came the entrees, uh!!! To die for!!! I ordered the cassoulet my all time favorite French dish. It was amazing, the beans just melted in my mouth and the duck and sausage were so good. It was amazing!!! Clem had a duck dish with this amazing citrus sauce with and probably one of the best Agra tin’s his ever tasted, of coarse second to my mom’s – LOL. Overall the dinner was amazing, the restaurant name is Camille. It was a little pricey but worth every little penny.
After dinner we headed back to the apartment and ran across this cute store with some amazing stripe and tickering fabrics. We have to go back! We got back to the apartment and Eric and Chrystelle had a chocolate tart waiting for us. It was so decadent – with white chocolate shavings, figs, frambois and red currents. We were officially stuffed so it was time for bed. Good night sweet prince.
I am so Drunk!
After we got back to the Hotel, I crashed! Clem relaxed a while and headed up to his parents room to greet Jim & Paulette. He hung out with the family and shared stories about our time in Paris and they so about Tuscany.
After a good nap I got up and we all headed out for dinner. At the front desk, Clem’s dad was asking for a good restaurant for dinner. The clerk recommended the Casa Del Sol along the waterfront of the old town area. We headed out on a mission. The port at night is just beautiful. But as Clem pointed out, all of the Ports in France and Italy looked like that. All I could think was how exciting it would be to see more like this. From the lights on all the boats twinkling in the port, to the lights that light up the hillside of the Chateau.
As we rounded the point we came across a huge memorial for all those lost in World War I & II in France. The memorial was huge and it looked like it had been there for over 100 years. A plaque close by gave only one date of inspection, 1997. I couldn’t believe it! It was beautiful. Clem fell in love with it and took many pictures.
As came to the area marked on the map by the clerk. The Casa was no where to be found – plus the building or restaurants along the water front looked rundown and scary. Then we walked into the inner sanctum of the scary building – after walking through one ally we were transported into a huge party area with chairs and tables in the street, with restaurant after restaurant lined up next to each other. Clem’s dad was still determined to find the Casa. He walked off back out to the water with Jim and Clem walked up the line of restaurants to see if any were named Casa. I hung out with Nancy and Paulette for little while.
I ran after Clem to see what he found and it was nothing – but there were so many great places we could eat at in all this amazing party atmosphere. We came back to where his parents were before and they were gone – we end up spend the next 30 minutes looking for them. Finally we headed back out to the water and further down from where we were originally and found the Casa. They were already sitting and eating.
We opted to head back to the fun. Before sitting down to dinner, we decided to hunt out a pub saw earlier in the day and grab a drink. We ordered Clem some good beer and me a sapphire and tonic. After about 15 minutes we started to notice some Aussie girls hanging out with some American blokes. The girls were already three sheets to the wind. Shirts were getting flipped up and lap grinding was underway. It was actually pretty hilarious! Especially when the blond starts repeating “I am so Drunk!” while looking for validation in each of the guys laps. LOL
We headed back to the restaurant area and sat down at a great place I noticed earlier. As we sit down this nice waitress, who I can say is a hottie, came over and started to take our drink order. Now, mind you when we sat down another waitress, older and had stink under her nose look on her face, stood 50 feet from us and never came over to start service. So after we gave our drink order to young girl, the older one comes over and takes our dinner order. Hmmm, seems that we have two waitresses. Until, the first girl comes back to take out entrée order. We sadly say another waitress already took the order. Oh!
I ordered some mussels as an appetizer and lamb. Clem ordered a fish pasta entrée. After about half an hour the older waitress serves us the mussels and Clem’s pasta. I think Clem was about to say something when she gave him a look and he kind of bite his lip. Oh well! I ate my mussels, which were delicious; sadly after eating last mussel I noticed I was eating them wrong. I was using a fork, so American of me, the guy at the next table uses an empty shell to pick out the meat. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
After another half hour my entrée came and Clem helped me eat it. Bottom line is we wished we had the nice waitress not the mean one. At the end of the meal we paid and handed a tip to the cute girl not leaving the mean one a tip. Take that miss thing!
After dinner I was stuffed and wanted to take a cab home. Clem wanted to walk, but he gave in. Sadly we walked all over looking for a cab, but they were all full. We ventured down to the beach and it was amazing how the moonlight just glimmered and light up the ocean. Now, the beaches in Nice are rock, and big ones. If you are ever in Nice, take a stroll along the waters edge. The sound of the rocks rolling in and out with the tide is indescribable. It was beautiful and great memory of Nice.
So we began to walk home, as Clem cleverly persuaded me. Man am I a guppy sometime! The walk was great, we decided to walk down along the port front and look at all the yachts. Lets just say I could live on any of those beautiful monsters. They were amazing. One yacht at the opening of the port had two speedboats on the back and not to mention the helicopter on the helicopter pad. One can only dream. We made it back to the hotel and we checked email and watched a movie. French TV is really limited except for CNN.
A Burger With No Bun?
After the Chagall museum we decided to head back the hill to do a little shopping. Further up into the hills was a museum for Matisse. Unfortunately I am not a big enough admirer to keep climbing up the hill. Neither were Clem’s parents. So we were off, walking down staircases and roads into some interesting areas of Nice.
Along the way we came across a bacci ball, then another one and another. They were so small to the one’s we’ve seen back home or even in Paris. What was cute was how they were nestled along the walkway and the homes sitting above them. I did get a few shots of courts.
As made our further down to the coast of Nice we came across a huge construction area. The city is putting in a light rail system that runs from the water all the way up into the hills. Unfortunately for pedestrians right now they have to deal with the unorganized construction. We veered off coarse as to avoid the craziness. We did happen to run into two interesting things.
The first being the largest vending machine I have ever seen. The machine took up an entire large storefront. Of coarse we used to it to get a bottle of Evian. It was pretty cool, even Clem was impressed. The second was a bit of a surprise. As we walked down one street we could hear bells chiming and as we came close to the corner. To the left we could see the tower of a Masque.
Then as we came around the corner, we jumped…….almost 100 men were kneeling on the sidewalk, an entire city block. Now we jumped because we didn’t expect to see them there. It was a rather amazing site to see that many people together. Of coarse all the women were across the street, but there were only half a dozen praying.
We ate lunch at a pub on a main street. It had a very American menu which was a great relief for Clem’s parents. They seemed to have overdone the whole Italian cuisine thing. Unfortunately in Nice, the cuisine is very Italian and very little French. Now, his mom ordered a simple salad and I ordered a Hamburger. The meal comes, and no BUN! Yup, a hamburger in Europe is just the patty no Bun. What was worse was how salty the patty was, and coming from me that must be really salty! The only thing I could think of was they used meat tenderizer on the meat. At that point I just bit my tongue and ate it.
After Lunch we finally hit the old town of Nice. We had finally found where everyone was hanging out and partying. Even at 2 in the afternoon! There were so many cute shops in the area and delicious foods. Clem and his Dad got some gelato, which they both liked. While I hit the chocolate shop. The shop had all these amazing candied fruits and jellies. I was in heaven. I also bought some 76% Cocoa Chocolate. We eventually cracked it open on the flight home to SF. It was so good!
What was amazing about the old town area was all the architecture. It was a stark contrast to all the French architecture in the newer areas of nice. Meaning in the last 150 years. This area is most certainly 200-250 years old. It had that medieval charm but with striking Mediterranean colors (which is new). I really fell in love with this area because of its charm. Plus there were a lot of young people in the area as well, which is interesting.
The day was winding down and we had to head back to the hotel and meet up with Nancy cousins who were arriving in Nice. Jim and Paulette were in Tuscany with Clem’s parents and more cousins’. They were coming to Nice to see the town and give Nancy and David a ride to Milan where they were flying to home.
Sorry
hi everyone, I am sorry we have posted lately because I have been bed ridden with a stomach flu and clem is back at work......hopefully tonight i will post again.
Chagall in the Hills
Clem’s parents dropped off their new Volvo at the port near the airport to be shipped to the states. From what his dad told us, it takes between 3-5 weeks for them to get it back in the states. When they got back to the hotel we headed out to visit the Chagall Museum here in Nice. The museum is located up in the hills overlooking Nice.
We pulled up to these blue doors, which remind me of the new color hitting the runways for spring/summer 06 – I labeled the color techno color blue. When we got inside we started off in room with renditions of the Old Testament. I think. Several of the pieces were very amazing. My favorite out of the collection was the one with Noah and the arc. With the yellow goat and all the people disappearing into the mix of colors.
Clem’s mother Nancy Identified several of the paintings and their themes. I was very impressed, sadly growing up and going to CCD did not stick permanently. The next collection of works was part of his lovers and wedding theme. Several paintings he did over his life fell in to this theme. His use of vibrant reds and mix of theme is evident.
My overall favorite in this collection was the trapeze artist over the horse. What is really interesting about this painting is the similarities of Chagall’s rendition and shapes to Francesco Clemente. Another painting who I adore and love. If you have seen the movie “Great Expectations” with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke, all the artwork Hawke’s character did was actually done Clemente.
Two other pieces in the museum to note was the mosaic tile wall in the reflection pool courtyard. I suggest attending the museum either morning for late afternoon. The 12 o’clock reflection really kills you viewing of this magnificent piece. The other is the woven tapestry, unfortunately I did not write the weavers name down and I cannot figure it out by enhancing the photo I took. Overall I love the museum collection although I was a little disappointed it was such a small museum.
I don’t think Clem enjoyed this collection as much as I did. Although he isn't a bid fan of Chagall as I am, he was a trooper though. He did like some of the pieces in the small exhibition of new artists. I fell in love with the black painting of the two women and the campfire. Great use of color!
2:00 PM Check in -- And Then!
We woke early on Thursday the 13th to head down to Nice and meet up with Clem’s parents. We got the airport early to avoid any drama with lines or security. We took EasyJet down to Nice; there was practically no one on the plane flying down there.
We landed around 945am and went to the hotel right away. The cab driver drove along the Promenade, which was a very fast drive and only cost about 30 euros. We arrived at the hotel and asked to check in early. The man at the front desk greeted us in English and spoke a few phrases in English – when we asked if we could check in early his English seemed to have disappeared and just said 2pm Check in – he repeated his phrase every time we asked for early check in.
The man finally gave us a key and to our surprise, the room was very, very tiny. I think it was pay back. I could most certainly not recommend the Hotel Agata in Nice, France. It was hell. Our first day in Nice was most certainly a contrast though. After we got into our room we took a nap for a couple of hours since we woke up at 530am and went to bed around 230am.
Clem’s parents arrived in the early afternoon. We decided to go out and walk around looking for a place for dinner and do a little window-shopping. The hotel where we were staying at is located next to a large yachting port. Huge Million dollar yachts were all over the port. We took several pictures of them. We also got to see some of the new Speedboat yachts. Two months ago Vanity Fair did a piece on some of these yachts but located in St. Tropez. Last month they did a full-length article about Larry Ellison and his new 455-foot yacht – the longest private yacht in the world.
After walking up and down numerous streets we finally found one restaurant with its doors open. The problem was it was around 630pm – And Nice is just like Paris or maybe France. No one eats till after 8pm. The young host at L’Icone was gracious enough to open the kitchen early for us . We started off with some drinks and then for dinner we ordered a broad array of goodies. Some of our dishes were good but some were not done properly like Nancy’s tuna. But the service made up for whatever was lacking.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and hit the hay. We were planning on getting up early the next day. Especially Clem’s parents, who had to drop their new Volvo at the shipping port to ship back home. Overall his parents enjoyed driving through Europe and seeing so many new places. Sadly they did have one little ding on the new baby. On the flight down we wondered if they lucked out or had that one whoops.
Photos are in the right column.
Our first bourgeois experience. . . . . .
Wednesday we woke up late because we didn’t get to bed until well after 230am. We finally stumbled out of the house after 12pm and decided to just walk around and do some window-shopping or actually something. Our focus was to go back to all the little walkthrough galleries that we’ve seen walking down streets. Around 2pm we planned to stop and have a late lunch with Eric near his office. So we kept the shops around the Place de la Concorde.
We found this gallery with some really cool paintings but it was closed. After standing and looking through the window for 5 minutes a lady walked up asking if we wanted to see the paintings. She opened t he shop and was very grateful although her English was very limited. One artist really struck us, his name is Christian Benoist. He painted these rooms, which were in abandoned buildings and were ravaged by time. With debris on the floor, broken windows and water running down walls..
Unfortunately the works were a little out of our price range. We did however like a couple of pastel sketches of paintings in the amuseum. Unfortunately the lady did not have much information on the artist or the pieces themselves. We bough a catalogue of the one artist we love in hopes we might be able to find another piece we could buy.
We continue on with our trek and ended up in another small gallery. The lady there spoke almost flawless English right as we walked through the door. Most of the works she had were really small or they were lithographs. As we were about to walk out of the store; on the opposing wall to the entrance, there was a painting that caught my eye. It was a snowy woods scene at sunset. The snow reflected the oranges and pinks in the sky and there between the trees was an old catering truck. It had a little window on the side and smoke stack coming through the roof. And there standing in front of the window, waiting for their little Panini and croque monsieur, was little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. My jaw dropped to the floor. Here is this beautiful painting of winter’s dusk, which could have been done by a great master and the painting takes on a whole new meaning with Red Riding Hood waiting for her Crepe.
The owner of the store came over and explained the story of how she came to collect the painting. One day her husband came home from a trip out in the country. And says his found a great painting to hang in their apartment. He hands her the painting and her face goes from excitement to a puzzled/pinched look. She hands the painting back to her husband and says she not impressed. He walks out of the room and pits the painting into his studio. Several weeks later he hands his wife a wrapped painting. She says she opened it and immediately start laughing and say’s she loves it. The husband had flawlessly inserted the truck, red and the wolf in to the painting. Everything was flawless from the colorings of the truck and wolf to even matching the shading already existing in the piece. I love it; we might go back and get it.
After we left that gallery we had to rush over and meet Eric for lunch. He took us to this small little pre-made food place but then we walked up stairs to these grand salons with the huge windows. It was great. After lunch we stated to head back over to the shopping area to look around some more. When we got closer to the Louvre we came across this new store, which was interesting. The store was presenting its product in a gallery style atmosphere. There are a lot of stores in NYC and SF that do this as well. Clem got excited about all the electronics, so I left him to his toys.
I noticed over on the back wall they had a wall of DVD’s for sale. The first thing to catch my eye is a documentary about Chanel and Karl Lagrafeld. I had read about this documentary premiering back at the Tribeca film festival earlier this year. I also saw an ad in a French magazine announcing its released on DVD. I got all excited but come to find out they only carry region 2 DVD’s. As put the documentary down, I notice another documentary that I have wanting to see for over a decade now. It’s a documentary on French fashion that was made back in the 60’s. I have been searching for it forever in the states and in the last couple of years I have forgotten the name of it. I got all excited because now I could take note of the title and hunt for it back in the states or order it online.
Well, I could not remember if we had a pen or pencil to write something down. So I had my camera in my hand ever since we walked into the store. I decided to just snap a shot of the DVD cover to make note of the title. As I am about to focus the camera this male employee jumps in front of me and grabs my camera and says “No Photo!!!” – I explain to him how I just want to make note of the name because they don’t have the right region for me. He says “I don’t care NO PHOTO!!!”.
I put the camera down and he walks away. So I start hunting for a pen and paper to write the name down. While I am looking at the DVD’s he walks past between me and the wall of DVD’s 3 times (mind you there is probably 3 feet between me and the wall). So I finally found the paper and pen and start to write down the name. Out of the corner of my eye I see him running up to me and he grabs my pen and says “No You Cannot Write” – My jaw dropped to the ground and I said “What???? I am just writing down the name” and he promptly replies “No You Cannot Do that here!!!” So I grab my pen out of his hand and he walks away – luckily I had written the name down fast enough;.
He walked to the back again and as he made another pass between the DVD’s, and me I turned and shouldered him. He kept walking as I said “Excuse You” I know I am terrible but he deserved it.
Patience is a Virtue
I am still in the process of updating our blog. I am sorry we are several days behind with the posts and the pictures. I've update and loaded more picture - they are list to the right.
Eiffel Tower
Today we’ve decided hit the Eiffel Tower. Come on, we’re tourists whether we like it or not. Like every day we made our way by foot. The only Taxis we have take so far was from the Airport (there is no metro at CDG) and the car took from the Louvre after the shows. I couldn’t be seen walking home after the shows; I had to take a Mercedes like the rest of the Fashion Crowd. LOL – Actually I was really tired after the show. I did a lot of walking and running that morning.
On the walk over we walked through the Jardin Toulles next the Louvre. And then made our way over to the Grand Palais in hopes to go in and see the Gustov Klimtt exhibit. Unfortunately another new exhibit was premiering that day and we could not gain entry. The Grand Palais re-opened after several years of restoration. Last week Yves St, Laurent showed there for the first time in over 10 years.
We finally made it over to the Eiffel tower. It was just turning to early evening so dusk was starting to fall. We bought our tickets like everyone else and hopped the elevator like everyone else. When I called my mother the next day and told her we had gone to the tower she asked if we climbed the stairs like all the other nut jobs!!!!! I said no way – we’ve been walking non-stop everywhere since we’ve landed. Now let me just put this into perspective for you, its 395 steps to the first level, its 385 steps to the second level and then its 675 steps to the top level – which we wanted to go to. So needless to say we opted to come out alive on this trek.
Now first I thought the Eiffel Tower would have been bigger. But then again to a kid – it would be HUGE!!!!! We made it to the top and it was great up there. Several couples were making out and kissing. I think it’s all the oxygen you get up there that high! LOL – I was proud of Clem, he actually walked all the way to the edge and looked over after I had to point out some roof garden. Clem is not a big fan of heights! But he did it and did look too freaked out.
After we got back down from the Top of the Eiffel Tower we headed back over to the Right bank. As we walked along the Siene we came across a intersection where there was heavy traffic. In the middle and to the side is a statue of a gold torch. Further inspection showed it was a gift from French American group in the states promoting relations with France. What was interesting was people were leaving notes on the monument, protesting bush and Chirac.
Next to the monument was a stonewall where people or tourists were writing notes on the stone. Several attempts had been made to remove the writings but they keep coming back. On the other side of the wall was an overlook to an entrance of a tunnel. Well in 2 seconds I saw the name Diana and bingo realized that his was infamous tunnel where Diana and Dodi were killed. I took several shots of the written notes. Then I realized we were on the west side of the tunnel. But the Ritz Carlton, where Diana was staying was East of the Eastside. So that means people were writing on the wrong entrance. We tried to get over to the east entrance to see if there was writing but the intersection was too crazy.
We then stopped on Avenue George V for some Onion Soup. Some really great Onion Soup. We were at an American/English café and there was practically no one there. At first we thought it was because of Bush/Blair but then we looked at our watches and it was only 630pm. So we were sitting to early for it to be busy. The Onion soup was amazing, both Clem and I devoured it within minutes.
Right next door to the restaurant, I remembered the Atelier for Hubert d’ Givenchy. (Probably one of the greatest designer/couturier in history.) Most people remember him for his friendship and collaboration with his muse Audrey Hepburn. All Mrs. Hepburn wore was Givenchy, both on film and off. I got a shot of the building but not a good one at all. I have to go back during the daytime.
Picasso Museum
Clem and I headed over to Picasso museum today. We are finally taking in some good art. Along the way we stopped at the Pompidou fountains and looked more great buildings along the way. We loved the colorful fountains and took a couple of pictures. It was amazing the abundance of mopeds and motorcycles in Paris. Along with all the smart cars, It’s a bummer the smart car craze did not take off in the states, especially in SF.
On the way to the museum we happened along a truck that a graffiti artist had painted. An amazing green and white portrait of a black woman. Several points this trip, the discussion of what is graffiti art and what is not. This is most certainly an example of graffiti art. About one block from the museum was a plaque on a building that was once a school. The plaque was honoring all the children who attended the school and were taken off to concentration camps.
The Picasso museum building was impressive. A former hotel – or home to a former patron and collector of his work. When we arrived the information provided about the current exhibit. We were all excited that it was a collection of works from the Picasso museum in Barcelona. The visiting exhibit turned out to be a collection of sketches and sketch books from Picasso’s work from 1906 to 1950. Although I photographer a number of pieces.
There was practically no Paintings in the collection. My favorite piece in the collection was the watercolor of the witch. It had beautiful bright colors with almost a Renoir quality. Another set of sketches that I did like was the sketches of his 4 wives.
The main floor and basement held the work from museum permanent collection. Many amazing pieces were on display. This section was not the most organized; several painting spanning 70 years were mixed together. Like the impressionist style painting of a woman lying naked which was one of his earlier works when he first met Manet. Or the abstract watercolor of the ram skull and candle (Clem’s favorite) which was from the 60’s.
Overall the collection did show how Picasso desire to reinvent or experiment drove his work. I saw so many transitions as well as similarities to other artists like Renoir, Manet, Miro and Chagall. We are really looking forward to visiting the d’Orsay, Louvre and Grand Palais next week.
After we left the Picasso museum we decided to walk over to Notre Dame. We walked down a couple of shopping streets near the museum and found this amazing kids clothing store. Parisian kids have it all, the best clothes and toys. At bookstore we bought some postcards. When we excited the store someone had left their kid out front in the stroller. It was hilarious; he was just hanging out of the stroller. I took a picture of it for prosperity. LOL
Along the way we walked down the small shopping streets of Isle de Louis. And then we stopped for some ice cream that Eric had taken Clem to the day before. Clem went for the decadent chocolate while I splurged and tried the white chocolate and another scoop of Caramel. It was delicious!
We walked across the bridge over to Notre Dame. We approached the church from the backside, which is in a dire need of cleaning. Plus it was sad to see so many of the gargoyles used for water run off, broken off. In its place were grey PVC pipes for drainage. So we made our way to the front of the church and noticed a group of high school kids gathering outside some building. Every just stood around (40-50) just talking and hanging out. It was like being in a Godard film.
What impressed me the most at the front of the church were the carvings above the doorways. From the apostles lined up for dinner to the little naked boys and priest adorning the arches. Hmmm, the very interesting? The inside was very big, but as I told Clem, not as big as I was expecting. Unfortunately the inside is very dark and medieval – so you could not see the details very much. A service was underway and the priest singing the hymns had a very beautiful voice.
I walked around to most of the station which can light a candle. I finally found a station for St. Jeanne of Arc. I light a candle for everyone. Later in the day we got the great news my brother and his wife are officially pregnant and with TWINS. We plan on going back to Notre Dame and light a candle for each of them before we leave. After Notre Dame we hung out in the plaza in front and watching people walk in and out. It was early evening and it was beautiful outside.
Afterwards Clem showed me the flower market, which was closed. I hope to go back sometime next week and see it open. As we crossed the bridge back to the right bank we too photos of the Eiffel Tower in the sunset. It was amazing. As we stood on the bridge we noticed this young guy handing near us or moving with us every time we moved. We stopped and moved probably 3 times on the bridge and each time he kind of laid back and posed. We figured he was a street hustler. At one point I was taking a picture of Clem and got a shot of him. We told our friend Eric about the guy and showed him the photo and he confirmed yes he was a hustler. The funny thing is in America we would have propositioned in the first 10 minutes, this boy never did!
As we walked back to the apartment we stopped at one of the booksellers along Siene. And we meet a really nice guy who spoke great English. He mostly sold comics or cartoon books. Clem bought an old Tin Tin book in French. The seller told us about his recent trip to San Diego to the ComiCon convention. It was great to hear about his impression of Californians. He kept apologizing for his bad English but he was almost fluent. Later Eric told us the whole apology thing is generational, most of the older generations are excited to learn English but are careful to apologize for any errors before the occur.
Birds Don’t Belong in Cages
While I was at the shows over at the Louvre on Sunday, Clem was sleep in! But when I returned he had just gotten up and was heading out to meet up with his friend Eric. I choose to crash and rest up for the evening since it was only 2pm. Clem headed out to meet Chrystelle & Eric and head over to the flower market over at Notre Dame. When they arrived to their surprise, it Bird day over at the market. Thousands of bird caged up for people’s amusement. I am so glad I didn’t go, I honestly detest the caging of birds. Clem agrees but he gritted his teeth and went on with the stroll.
After they left the market, Eric started showing Clem all the great shops along Isle d’Louis. And introduced him to some amazing Glacee, chocolate nonetheless. After the Glacee Clem headed back to the apartment to wake me up. We headed out to dinner in the neighborhood. We ate a cute little tapas restaurant on the street. And we had the sweetest waiter in the world. He sat down with us and chatted a lot about where he was from and asking questions about California.
Afterward we wondered our way back to the apartment while taking more evening shots of architecture in the area. We found a couple of little ally’s and inside malls were open and I took some more shots. I had never seen the water runoff in the street before. I mean I’ve seen it in movies but never in person. So far our experiences and interactions with the Parisians has been great – dispelling all the myths shoved down our throats in the US.
Flower MarketDinner out
“Excuse Me I am talking to someone”
After seeing all those people go into the show my head was spinning. And I was just bummed I didn’t have an invite to the show. I stood out side the entry area and watched people go in and then I noticed a woman unhooking the ropes on the other side an walk down a corridor. I moved over to see and there was a bathroom down there. Along side the entry was a new update booth and between them was a stone pillar and room go through. So I mustard up the cajones and slipped between the pillar and the booth and darted for the bathroom. In the bathroom I pulled out my scarf and glasses and put them on. Then I went out to the entry area grabbed the velvet rope lock and walked right into the show.
I was in, I couldn’t believe it! When I got into the show the room was enormous and there were so many people. I looked around to see where was the best place to see the show, and then I started to get pushed down into the pit. As I got down the bottom I notice all the American editors sitting in the front row at the end of the runway. I walked over and was standing in front of Anna, Hamish, Suzy, Andre and Candy. I broke down and walked up to Anna and asked if I may take a picture, and she said “Sure go ahead”. And there is my luck shot. After I took the photo I noticed the seating card next to Anna was Grace Coddington (style editor at American Vogue), my favorite editors ever! I had to meet her and get a photo of her. I asked Anna if Grace would attending and she said “yes!”. I got all giddy and excited. Sitting left to Anna was Candy, two seats over. Unfortunately Candy was bent over chatting with someone and I didn’t want to interrupt her conversation.
Since I wasn’t getting my shot of Candy, I opted to Andre Leon Talley who was sitting right next to Candy. Mr. Talley was very kind and said “Why sure” and then some portly photographer sitting up in the photographer pit behind him shouted. “Hey Andre can you move over one seat your in my WAY?” and Andre says in a stern voice, “Excuse me I am talking to someone and NO!”. Then Andre tells me to go ahead and I get my photo. Then Andre turns around in his seat and gives a good one to the photographer. Luckily I got shot of Andre in action.
After shooting Andre turned around and surveyed the pit, which was filling by second with photographers and celebrities. Across the mirrored “V” runway I could see the photographer Mario Testino. What I was eager to see is if Mr. Testino was around the European contingency of editors. I was hoping to meet or get a photo of Carine Roirfeld (editor of French Vogue) or Anna Piaggi (style editor of Italian Vogue). Sadly I did not see either of them. So I focused back toward the American editors.
As I turned around I saw Charlotte Casragi (daughter to Princess Caroline of Monaco) being photographed and I stopped a quick shot. I walked closed towards Suzy Menkes and then I saw Glenda Bailey again, this time I hoped to get a better photo of her. But she was talking to someone so I decided to just move on. I took a quick photo of all the photographers and noticed there was another woman sitting in Grace Coddington’s seat, I got so Bummed at that point. I went back toward Suzy and asked to take her photo and said yes as well. Then as I moved toward the stairs at the end of the front row I saw ???? VEGA (editor of Elle Magazine & judge on Project Runway). I snapped a shot as she was talking to another editor.
So I made it into the show and got down to the pit and got all these great shots. But now my camera is completely filled and I have to either delete some photos or download all the photos on to my computer. So I run to the top of the stairs and into a corner and start the download. 4 minutes later I am done, packing my computer back in my bag and head back down to the pit. But now there is a wall of people at the tops of the stairs, my chance to grab an empty seat has now passed. So I had to stand and shoot and watch the shows over people’s shoulders. Loved the show though!
At the end I shuffled out like the rest and moved onto the next show.
Valentino Fashion Show Movie
I've posted a little movie of all my photos and videos of the Valentino Show. I've also updated the right sidebar with all the photos and vidz posted so far - enjoy....heading out!
Valentino Movie
She couldn’t walk in those Louboutin’s
After viewing the Elie Saab show I had two hours to kill before my next show. I decided to just hangout in the concourse to avoid going back through the security check point which was know a mob scene. Some woman came out screaming because it was out of control. It turns out that the security people were having to deal with public individuals trying to walk in without a invite and not standing in the public line.
As I was standing there this short silver haired man asks me if I had an extra invite. I turn to look at him face to face and notice it’s Tim Blanks, the host Video Fashion. I said sorry but I don’t have one for myself. He proceeds to tell me how his lost his and cannot get a hold of his producer to get a new one. He then proceeds to comment on how hot he is and how he sweating bullets. I comment that I was sweating in Elie Saab the whole time. Unfortunately I asked to take his picture but he got on his cell and proceeded scream for his producer. I said good luck and slowly walked away.
I was getting really depressed waiting around and watching all these people strutting themselves into the Valentino show. At the same time my head was spinning by seeing all these people I have bocked over on TV since I was 13. I mean every socialite and rich woman in the world was there to see Valentino’s collection. I even got a photo of woman named Dede who I have seen several times. She’s a rather well know socialite from NYC. She had walked by me once and then a second time – I think she thought I was paparazzi since my camera was in my hand. She was rather nice and allowed me to take her photo after the second pass.
Then as usual all the big name editors and buyers started showing up to the show. First Candy Pratts Price comes walking by me in her black Valentino skirt and her Christian Louboutin heels. Unfortunately she just stomped right past me, I tried to get her attention but she was on a mission. I love Candy, she is probably one of the best editors in the business, sadly she is working for style.com, which is not utilizing all her great talent. Now I must say watching Candy walking in those Louboutin’s was painful, but then again she has been going to show after show for the past 4 weeks. Candy I still love you.
After Candy arrived Andre Leon Tally (style editor from American Vogue) came out of security all a fluster. He too rushed into the show shunning off all the paparazzi. I was always expecting him to be a tall, tall man. Sadly, since I am 6’2’’, his not that tall to me. But he did carry himself very well. After Andre arrived, then came Anna Wintour (the editor for America Vogue) running in her open toe Manolo Blhanik’s, avoiding the press. She had her sunglasses in one hand and hold her bulky neck less in the other. Screaming “I am late no pictures” as she ran by me I said “Hi Anna” and she turned and said “oh, Hello” and then double-checked me since she didn’t know who I was.
Now let me put this into perspective. Anna Wintour is probably the most powerful magazine editor today; she’s the big one, the one that everyone loves to hate. Even me, until she was polite enough to turn and say hello to a complete stranger. So back to the story, after Anna arrived some other people arrived fashionably late as well and I was shocked that it wasn’t Anna who was the last to arrive. i.e. like the Oscar’s.
After Anna arrived, Suzy Menkes came running in with her purple suede pumps. Then came Linda Wells (Editor Glamour) and one her little editors. Then came Glenda Bailey (editor of Hapers Bazaar), who was stopping and posing for ever paparazzi photographer possible. Now I love Glenda, she’s amazing and she’s done great things with Harper’s Bazaar. But the black velvet dress and Chanel quilted handbag just didn’t go well together. As she stood for photo’s I stepped in and took a quick shot of her.
A Funny Thing Happened at Elie Saab
(quick note - sorry we have not been posting too much lately, I finally on the plane finished numerious entries that I started, I should be posting more later tonight and through the weekend)
Yesterday I attended a couple of shows during Fashion Week. I had received a couple of invitations and the shows were located over at the Louvre. I got somewhat early at American standards, but to find out that Parisians don’t get outside until early afternoon or late morning. At 10am no one was on the streets. The only people out in numbers were the runners of marathon that was happening around the La Halles Square near the apartment.
I made it over to the Louvre around 1025, now any fashionista would know that fashion shows, never start on time. The reasons vary, either the actual show is behind or they are waiting for some big editor or journalist. Never for a celebrity…LOL – When I arrived at the Louvre, I had to go down 3 escalators to get to the level the showrooms are located. Tourists had already arrived at the museum and were staring at all the black clad people (like myself) speed walking or running through the corridors of the Louvre. When I got to the security checkpoint someone starts ushers us into this line for standing or tickets.
While standing in line I meet a woman whose here from the UK to review the shows with her boss. I cannot remember what magazine she said. We had a light conversation and then her boss runs up and tells her she’s in the wrong line. She introduces me to her boss and her boss asks if I am here for Elie Saab, I say “Yes”. She grabs both our arms and runs us through security really fast. We race into Saab and she moves me from my 6th row seat to the second row with them.
Then about 1 minute after we sat down the lights go down and a Black Eyed Peas song comes blaring over the sound system. There in the show lights I notice Hal Rubenstein a buyer for Bloomingdales….a staple in the fashion industry. He to arrived at the last minute and was shuffling for his pen and paper. He noticed me looking at him like a normal starfucker…and smiled back at me. Then comes the funny part – after the 6th or 7th look Hal starts to nod off. Now for those of you who don’t know, Hal is very important in the Fashion world and he always sits front row. The funny thing about this is Hal nod off through the whole show, and there was an older woman sitting next to him, with her husband., watching and smiling every time he closed his eyes and jerked his head down.
I tapped my new little friend to show her and she giggled and the gasped. She says “Oh no, that’s Elie Saab’s parents”. LOL
So the show continues on and I am taking photos and video of it, while peaking a look at sleeping Hal. Now in my footage of the show, the reason hal is in all my shots is because he was in my direct angle of viewing the show. The show over all was, OKAY. No strong looks and not a jaw dropper. I’ve posted a review on my Turlie blog. As the show is going on, I do notice that the only other big name there was Hamish Bowels, an editor. When the show ended I said thank you to the two ladies who helped me and scurried off to catch Mr. Bowels before he left. We the runway gets crammed with Paparazzi and I have to go around the seating – when I arrive on the other side, Hamish is gone.
I exited the show all broken hearted and began to walk to the concourse area where everyone is waiting for the show. As I am walking out the doors and man bumps into me and says sorry. I say “Oh not a problem” and then notice its Hamish. Well, I said hello and introduced myself and chatted with him about the show, he didn’t like it either, “off the record” he says. I laughed and asked if I could take a picture, and he obligies. We both walked out and he says, “are you viewing Valentino” and I said No ☹. We said goodbye.
Here is a little movie of the Elie Saab show.
http://homepage.mac.com/clem/iMovieTheater33.html
Fashion Show Roller Coaster
I just go back from view a few shows over at the Louvre. I had an invite to see the Elie Saab & Collette Dunnigan shows - so many people and so many people I recognized. I took alot of photos and I will post them later when I write a more detail account of the experience. I was able to sneak into the Valentino show and get down to the pit. I meet Anna Wintour and chatted with Andre Leon Talley. Here is a photo of Anna - without her glasses - very rare at a show. I am going skip Gilles Rosier, two editors I spoke with said that the preview sucked and though the show will be the same. So I am back at the apartment and going to take a nap. Clem just left to meet Chrystelle and Eric to go flower shopping along Siene. Check back soon for more. . . . . .
i've added this photo i took of Anna Wintour
Paris – Day 2 “Mimes Who Speak “
Well I had a rough night sleeping; I went to bed around 130am and woke up around 4am from a nightmare. Sadly this was one of my intense bad dreams, I tried to fall back to sleep for a good hour. Finally I got up and worked on the computer a little while. Finally around 530-45 I went back to bed and fell asleep. Oh, I also popped a Tylenol PM at that point…..not a good idea. Clem woke up and I got in the shower. After he finished I got up and he said good morning, and I told him about the horrible sleep I had. He proceeded to say he slept rather well and felt great for 10 in the morning – I immediately looked at the clock and said “no it’s 230pm” he said no, and looked again and freaked – so needless to say our second day in Paris was a late start.
We made it out and headed over to a small café and at some lunch. As we sat eating our Baguette and Quiche we watched everyone come up and down the main street Eric’s apartment sits off of. For anyone who loves to travel and avoid all the touristy areas, the La Halles district is perfect. Most of the streets are pedestrian only and they crammed with several places to eat and shop. After eating we walk towards the Siene and ran across the corporate headquarters for Louis Vuitton. A line of chauffeur driven cars sat at the front entrance. This was a total find, it wasn’t even on my list of Ateliers to hit. Although this building houses corporate rather than the individual designers they own.
After lunch we meet up with our friends Chrystelle and Eric to go explore the area. Chrystelle had her sisters car for the weekend and we drove up the Canal St. Martin to walk along and look at the dykes and shops. Just some advice, driving on Saturday in Paris is not a good idea. We spent more time in the car than walking around. But Eric and Chrystelle made it pleasurable. We several cute shops and Eric took us too an Anarchist Bookstore……which was interesting but saw several familiar books and magazines. We took many pictures of the dykes and the surrounding architecture.
I want to back peddle a little bit and just comment on our findings last night while walking around the Marias district and boys town. First it was interesting to see so many people out on the streets and drinking. At several Cafés there were so many people on the sidewalk that they were standing in the gutter or street. Chrystelle commented that they were more than likely celebrating something. Next since last night I have done a double take on several young gents walking by. Every time I could have swarn I saw our friend Brian DG, so many guys look similar to him. Sorry Brian, but it’s a compliment.
After we left the Canal area, Eric drove us up to Montmarte – we got stuck in every kind of traffic possible. But the parking Gods were on Eric’s side, he was able to find a spot right in front of the Funicular (Hillside Tram). We made our way to the top and I forgot that this weekend the Montmarte district was holding its annual Vine Festival. So we wandered the streets and checked out a few of the vendors. The architecture is amazing up on the hill and the surrounding village. Montmarte is most certainly a village; it has the feel and character to go with it.
We arrived there right at sunset so I got some amazing evening shots. If I had to move to Paris this village would be my number on pick. But that’s not happening anytime soon, we have a new home back in the states. LOL At one point we came across a Louis XVII mime that I proceeded to take a picture of. After I took the picture, he pushed his way through the crowd and grabbed my camera and said “Picture Cost Money!!!” – I was shocked, I turned to Clem and said “I though Mimes were not supposed to talk”. If you look at the pictures I posted, I got a snap of him getting in my face, it’s the blurry picture. I did give him money.
I got many great shots in Montmarte, one of some huge meringues, which my mom loves….that’s for you mom! And many pictures of buildings and streets dimly light. Also I did get a picture of the local grocer who shop was in the movie Amelie…..he kept the remodel the film company did of his store so he can now make himself a tourist stop. I did love the movie and remembered the store in the movie.
We strolled till the witching hour and finally got dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. The food was delicious but the waitress was hard to stomach, not very nice. She could not understand Clem and got all pissy. Chrystelle said he said his order right. So I suggested we hunt for dessert. We made our way back onto the streets and took more pictures of some amazing buildings.
We had dessert at a cute Creperie close to the fenicular. I had a crepe flambé with marmalade, chocolate and grand marnie. Clem had a chocolate and banana crepe. It was delicious. So that brings us back home for a good night sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for me; so far I am seeing 4 shows. I never got my invite from Carla Otto for the Berardi show but I hope to swing by and see if I can get in anyway.
Here are pictures from today
Canal St. Martin Photo’s #1Canal St. Martin Photo’s #2
Montmarte Photo’s #1Montmarte Photo’s #2
Paris - Day 1 "Gizzards"
Clem and I are in Paris and so far so good. The weather is good, but some may say its to dark and overcast. I love it, although it was rather humid today. Clem's friend Eric is letting us stay in his extra bedroom. His apartment is located in the La Halles district of Paris. The neighborhood is so friendly and beautiful, most of the streets are for pedestrian traffic only. The downside is Eric's apartment has a killer view of the rooftops, which means we have to climb up 6 flights of stairs. No Elevator! I made it through day one.
We took a long nap after arriving, both of us got little sleep on the plane thanks to two screaming kids. We just got back from dinner at this really amazing, very little restaurant located a couple of blocks from here. The name of the restaurant is Quincambosse., The meal was amazing, very simple and very french country. Clem had potato and ham tart and I had a salad with chicken, duck and gizzards.....which then sparked a long discussion on the word gizzard and how the french pronunciation sounds so much better. I decided am not hold back on the food front. I want to try it all, like Clem said at dinner, he almost ordered the lasagna but gave into the idea of exploring a little. The waiter was extremely friendly although he was working a full room - which was a total of 6 tables. When I say small, I mean small. The restaurant was decorated with many antiques, the was fascinated by the bunch of dried holly sprigs hanging over the entry area. I wondered if it actually had a meaning or ritual to it. Everyone thought I was nuts.
After dinner we walked around a couple of areas I am not familiar with the names right now. One area Eric said was known as Boystown or the gay neighborhood. Honestly I was enjoying all the french architecture from light of the street lamps. We stopped and read a number of plaques. We also popped our heading into a couple of galleries that were open. On the way home we got some Gellato and headed back up to the apartment. Several apartments are having parties so you can hear everyones conversations echoing off the rooftops.
On the fashion show front, I received 6 invites in the mail total. Three of them have already passed. Two of them are what I was expecting (Gilles Rosier & Elie Saab) plus another invite to a designer show on Saturday. I am going to skip the show on Saturday and focus on Sunday only. Eric brought a few invites from his work as well, one invite is actually a assigned seat at the Gilles Rosier show for his boss at Newsweek. So I am going to use that one and another invite to the Collette Dinningan show which is also on Sunday. All three so far will be at the Louvre. I am a little bummed I did not make a trek over to the Alexander McQueen show tonight, but I would have to leave everyone for our first night here. So I gave in!
Well that ends our first day in Paris, I am heading off to bed.
to see photo's from today go to......
http://homepage.mac.com/clem/kincaidholloman/PhotoAlbum27.html
Up Up Up into the sky
We are off to Paris. We will write soon.........
Our to do list so Far. . . . .
Major Musee
Louvre
Musee d’ Orsay
Grade Palais
Musee de la mode palais galliera – 10 ave Pierre 1er de sebie – 10 E1
Musee d’Art moderne de ville – Palaise de Tokyo – 11 Avenue de president-wilson
Musee Marmotten
Small Musee
Edith Piaf’s Apartment
Fashion Trek
McQueen Flagship
Chanel Ave Georges
Couture Houses
Monuments or Locations
Moulin de la Galette
Jardin du Luxembourg
Parc Monceau
Le Grand Palais
Le Château de la Reine Blanche in Coye-la-Forêt
Austerlitz Railway Station - Place Valhubert; 13th Arrondissement
Food
Restaurant Chartier
Café de Flore – 172 Rue du St Germain
Les Duez Magot – 6 Pl St Germain des Pres
Marche St Germain – an old food market
Brassier Lipp
Montmarte Vineyard
Au Lupin Agile -
Architecture
29 Avenue Rapp - Jules Lavirotte 1901
La Roche Villas – 8 Square de Docteur Blanche
Rue du Dragon – off St. Germaine
Rue Galande
Place de la Contrescarpe – Rue Mouffetard/ Rue Lacepede
Rue la fontaine
Shopping
Stock Shop – 18 rue de Verrerie, 4e – last season discount items.
7L - 7 rue de Lille – Lagerfeld Owned bookstore
Quai Voltai – Rue du Bac
Shakespear Company.- 37 Rue de la bucherie
Les Passages
Already Packing. . . .
Clem and I are off to Paris in a couple of days. We hope to post a lot of interesting tidbits, finds and journals during our trip. I am excited to get the opportunity to see a fashion show or two while we are there. There will be a delay in our postings compared to our actual arrival so be patient with us. But please leave any comments or questions. So check back soon for some interesting posts. Enjoy
After a quick breakfast we walked down the Montogieu and headed back over to the Marais district in search of some presents. Today was going to be all about buying presents and find gifts for us. We walked about 4 blocks and that icky feeling fell on my like a pile of bricks. At first I kept my mouth shut and kept walking. We stopped at the Les Halles center and took a few pictures. What’s really great about the center is they have Kids Park that is huge, I’ve never seen anything like it. Sadly I have no picture of it, every time we walked by it was closed.
So we hit the road and headed over the Marais district. We were about two blocks into our shopping and the sick feeling was turning into a throw up feeling. I was getting worse! I tried to keep my mouth shut but I finally told Clem I was not feeling that great and I might need to head back to the apartment. We found this amazing teashop, which is a 300-year-old tea company. The store had been open for over 200. As we left the shop I decided I needed to go home. Clem walked me back to the apartment, the sky was starting to get dark again, and we had no umbrella.
We made it back to the apartment and I went to bed right away. Clem headed back out to walk around and hit a Irish Pub that Eric suggest he stop by for some better beer. Poor Clem has been drinking piss beers during most of the trip. One can only drink so much Heineken before getting sick. But then again, I don’t drink beer – It has such fowl taste, before, during and after. I told Clem it’s going to pore like crazy soon – so he should take the umbrella – he doubted me! But did take it, Not 10 minutes after he walked out the door – It started to pore like cats and dogs. 
The Musee d’Orsay has its own complete collection of the Degas ballerina casts and bronzes. This collection is one of four complete collections in known existence. I have now seen all 4 collections. The other 3 collections are located at MET in NYC, National Gallery in DC. The third is still in private collection, which did tour the US 2 years ago. I took my sister and niece to see the private collection that showed at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. So I have completed another adventure in my life. I grew up loving Degas and his work and made it a mission in life to see all 4 completed casts of the Degas ballerinas.
In the third section of Musee d’Orsay, we ventured to ground level galleries. We decided to skip most of the contemporary works and explore more of the impressionist exhibits. In the lower levels there were a number of Manet’s on exhibit. Including “Le Balcon” (The Balcony) and the “”The Picnic”. What was great to see was the number of students camped out in front “The Picnic”. Working on sketches and drawings. 
After the Art Nouveau section we finished up the remainder of the impressionist galleries. At the end were a number of Van Gough pieces. What was interesting was all the Van Gough pieces that the d’Orsay had exhibit were from a certain time frame. Van Gough was in prison right before died. When he was released he worked like crazy cranking out a number of paintings. He was averaging over 5 paintings a day and was selling that at the fraction of his normal commission. You can really see how these works were quickies! Especially compared to his earlier work that I have seen. 
After the d’Orsay we headed across the street to brasserie on the corner. I ordered a simple Croque and salad, while Clem ordered some soup. The weather was beginning to change today. Our clear skies and warm temps, was slowly giving way to clouds and cold gusts of wind. The waiter seemed to be on a rampage. He was running all over the place and even taking out garbage right before he serves our food. EEEK!
After a fail attempt to see the d’Orsay gallery yesterday, we made the trek back to the left bank once again. And this time we were greeted with a rather long line. On the way to the d’Orsay we walked through the Galarie where I fell in love with the two paintings. To my surprise, I did not recognize it before! I have seen the space many times before, as it was used in several Jean Paul Gaultier shows. For those of you who do not know that name, his a fashion designer here in Paris. 
The d’Orsay is amazing; it’s a converted train station. After you have entered the front entrance, you walk into the actual train track area. Which is now the main room for the museums sculptures. I love how they created different levels to room, which lead you into a maze of galleries. We opted to start from the top – we learned our lesson over at the Louvre. Here is my advice, stop for a minute and look at your map to the museum and focus on the parts of the museum you wish to see. The d’Orsay is on a grand scale even in its collection. 
In the second section of the d'Orsay we got to see several sketches and drawings. What is interesting is how the d’Orsay shows these pieces. They show paintings in the large rooms with natural light. While the drawings and sketches are in low light rooms with low ceilings. That’s why my photos are so dark. Clem and I came across an artist neither of us had seen before. Lucien Levy-Dhurmer painted from 1880-1920’s; the museum had 5 drawings by the artist. Two entitled “Medusa” and “the Sorcerer”, plus a portrait of “Georges Rodenbach” which is really ghostly. I think the reason we love Dhurmer’s work is its so dark and dead like. 
There were two Lautrec paintings hanging before we went into the drawing and sketch rooms. The two paintings were actually billboards that use to hang in Paris. Sadly after their use, someone had chopped them up and framed them. Luckily someone went through the painstaking work of recovering all the pieces and put them back together. In the smaller rooms there were several sketches and drawing by Lautrec. Including my two favorite pieces, “Le Lit” a sketch of two kids sleeping…the colors were amazing. The second was “La Femme au Boa Noir” (Woman with Black Boa). Lautrec did very little paintings in his lifetime; most of his works were in the form of sketches and drawings.
After lunch in the Jardin de Luxenbourg, we headed over to the fountain. In the fountain swam about a dozen mallard ducks and in the middle near the water spraying up was a little house with little decks for the ducks to jump up on and they could go into the house as well. We finally found a spot to sit down and enjoy the clear sky and the late afternoon sun. Everyone was facing the sun so we joined in the soak it up! We have seen several tanning salons on the right bank. I am sure this good weather is eating into their profit margin.
This man stopped in front of us with his son in his stroller – it was too cute how he just sat in his stroller for a good 15 minutes just staring right at us. One would think this was a little creepy but check out the photo I took of him – it was too adorable. As we made our way out of the Jardin, we came across this amazing fountain. I got two great shots of it, you can see people sitting on chairs around the fountain – shield from the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet. Then out of nowhere another little boy, blond hair and all came running up behind us and screamed BOO! I laughed, I was laughing more because he had a plaid shirt and plaid jumper on and some how it was working! LOL
I asked one of the ladies working there if the had seen a certain book I had been search for in the last couple of years. (A limited edition of Alice & Wonderland with drawings by Salvador Dali.) She looked at me and says; “No we haven’t”, now mind you this store is over 200 years old and everyone working there is younger than me! Hmmmm.
On the way home we made a little pit stop. I was not about to spend 2 weeks in Paris and not find Alexander McQueen’s atelier. After wondering around the Marais for a while, we finally came to no.6 rue de Braque. As most modern designers today they ateliers are unmarked and hidden from the world. I was gitty like a little boy when we finally found it. The lights were on up in the studio and huge dark green doors were closed. It was an amazing moment. I should have knocked and asked for a cup of sugar. LOL
We set off this morning early again. Had a good night sleep over at the apartment for the first time. Our plan today was to hit the d’Orsay and then the Jardin de Luxenbourg. We hit Starbucks and then over walked down Rue de Rivoli. We stopped at a clothing store I had seen last week, called Zara. Clem found some killer leather sneakers and I rummaged through some things for my niece and the two little one’s along the way.
So it was now onto the Jardins. We tried to walk around a little along the way, but unfortunately that area is covered with high stores and dealers. I did find a AGA store, which I was surprised to find out that they also make there own cookware and bake ware. Of coarse I took several shots of the store – even the pink range. We continued on but many stores were closed, which even in SF is typical. Most of the area around the Jardin de Luxenbourg was high-end shops and restaurants. And when I say high end I mean high end, even the one kids store we walked into was too pricey. A baby one-piece jumper was over 65euros. 
Out of the corner of Clem’s eye he spotted a little restaurant in the park. We walked over to check it out. The menu was a little pricey but looked delicious. We sat down and ordered different Croque’s. When they arrived they were more like Bruchetta than croque’s. But it tasted great and it hit the spot. We made our way over to the big fountain finally and saw everyone sitting on chairs around the fountain and the outline to the Jardin.
Clem and I chatted over it at lunch and we think the rote of the problem is that parents do not instill or teach their children how respect others and property as a whole. Now one thing that I have noticed in Paris is there is a definite problem with graffiti. It’s everywhere, store fronts, subways, untouched walls the same in America. The graffiti versus art topic has come many times during the trip. That happens a lot when we are visiting NYC as well, Sorry Shanon!
When someone tells you need several days to do the Louvre, they are not lying. Yesterday Clem and I got up early, around 930am, the earliest yet. We stopped by Starbucks and then headed over to the Louvre right away. We decided to start from the bottom and work our way up. Viewing the French sculptures first and then on to paintings then interiors. Well the French sculptures took us over 3 hours alone. 
The second painting was one of Artemis (Diana) in the woods and a nymph is moving the branches of a tree to shed a beam of light down upon her. Now this is what’s interesting, Gidohet painted Artemis as a Man rather than a woman. One will notice that she is naked with no breasts and she has a wee wee. Questioning the gods sex as well as sexuality. After viewing the remainder of the collection you see how Gidohet focused his energies on the subjects eyes, facial expression and hands. In some paints the hands were almost as big or bigger than the subjects head.
After the Gidohet exhibit we heading up to the second floor to see more paintings. We decided to knock off the European painters from Germany, Holland, Flanders and Netherlands. Unfortunately this is not a period or countries I studied in school. Although most of the Ruebens and Vermeers. What was interesting, there were a couple of Rembrandts here and there. Definitely out of place.
For dinner, it was going to be a crepe party. Chrystelle has this little hot plate designed for making 6 crepes at one time. And of coarse there were six of us. Chrystelle’s sister Valerie joined us and another friend of Eric’s who does photography and is an editor. We had a blast and me being the American I made a big mess. I’ve never made crepes before – well maybe back in college. 
Last night, we didn’t get to sleep until around 230am again. I am not sure why we are going to sleep so late. Maybe taking little naps in the afternoon are not a good idea. Clem’s parents came knocking to say goodbye, we were bummed we missed breakfast with them. They were off to Milan with their cousins Jim & Paulette. They are supposed to also have another couple (cousin’s) come down by train to Milan so they can all see the city. They are leaving tomorrow to fly back to Oregon. 
After we landed in Paris we headed back to the apartment where we were greeted by Eric & Chrystele. Before we headed up to the apartment I wanted to stop at the patisserie to buy some bottle water. As we walked past Eric’s apartment, we passed a couple waiting for a table at the little restaurant out front. What caught my eye was two ladies sitting on the curb waiting for a table and one woman was wearing these cute ballet slipper shoes which I guessed were Chanel. Then I looked at her face and my jaw dropped, it was Sofia Coppola. (An amazing director/writer and daughter to Francis Ford C.) I stopped and showed Clem real quick and opted to not pull a starfucker moment. She looked so cute on the curb and so in her element. Sadly my patisserie was closed so no water ☹
We walked up to the apartment said our hello’s. We sat down and started to share our stories about the trip to Nice. And we continued to ask more questions about what culture and phrases we didn’t understand. I started to tell Chrystelle about how we saw Sofia down on the street waiting for a table. She promptly responds, “oh yes, she is here filming right now out at Versailles. She’s filming a movie about Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst.
After we got back to the Hotel, I crashed! Clem relaxed a while and headed up to his parents room to greet Jim & Paulette. He hung out with the family and shared stories about our time in Paris and they so about Tuscany.
As came to the area marked on the map by the clerk. The Casa was no where to be found – plus the building or restaurants along the water front looked rundown and scary. Then we walked into the inner sanctum of the scary building – after walking through one ally we were transported into a huge party area with chairs and tables in the street, with restaurant after restaurant lined up next to each other. Clem’s dad was still determined to find the Casa. He walked off back out to the water with Jim and Clem walked up the line of restaurants to see if any were named Casa. I hung out with Nancy and Paulette for little while. 
I ordered some mussels as an appetizer and lamb. Clem ordered a fish pasta entrée. After about half an hour the older waitress serves us the mussels and Clem’s pasta. I think Clem was about to say something when she gave him a look and he kind of bite his lip. Oh well! I ate my mussels, which were delicious; sadly after eating last mussel I noticed I was eating them wrong. I was using a fork, so American of me, the guy at the next table uses an empty shell to pick out the meat. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
After the Chagall museum we decided to head back the hill to do a little shopping. Further up into the hills was a museum for Matisse. Unfortunately I am not a big enough admirer to keep climbing up the hill. Neither were Clem’s parents. So we were off, walking down staircases and roads into some interesting areas of Nice. 
As made our further down to the coast of Nice we came across a huge construction area. The city is putting in a light rail system that runs from the water all the way up into the hills. Unfortunately for pedestrians right now they have to deal with the unorganized construction. We veered off coarse as to avoid the craziness. We did happen to run into two interesting things. 
We ate lunch at a pub on a main street. It had a very American menu which was a great relief for Clem’s parents. They seemed to have overdone the whole Italian cuisine thing. Unfortunately in Nice, the cuisine is very Italian and very little French. Now, his mom ordered a simple salad and I ordered a Hamburger. The meal comes, and no BUN! Yup, a hamburger in Europe is just the patty no Bun. What was worse was how salty the patty was, and coming from me that must be really salty! The only thing I could think of was they used meat tenderizer on the meat. At that point I just bit my tongue and ate it.
Clem’s parents dropped off their new Volvo at the port near the airport to be shipped to the states. From what his dad told us, it takes between 3-5 weeks for them to get it back in the states. When they got back to the hotel we headed out to visit the Chagall Museum here in Nice. The museum is located up in the hills overlooking Nice. 
Two other pieces in the museum to note was the mosaic tile wall in the reflection pool courtyard. I suggest attending the museum either morning for late afternoon. The 12 o’clock reflection really kills you viewing of this magnificent piece. The other is the woven tapestry, unfortunately I did not write the weavers name down and I cannot figure it out by enhancing the photo I took. Overall I love the museum collection although I was a little disappointed it was such a small museum.
We woke early on Thursday the 13th to head down to Nice and meet up with Clem’s parents. We got the airport early to avoid any drama with lines or security. We took EasyJet down to Nice; there was practically no one on the plane flying down there.
After walking up and down numerous streets we finally found one restaurant with its doors open. The problem was it was around 630pm – And Nice is just like Paris or maybe France. No one eats till after 8pm. The young host at L’Icone was gracious enough to open the kitchen early for us . We started off with some drinks and then for dinner we ordered a broad array of goodies. Some of our dishes were good but some were not done properly like Nancy’s tuna. But the service made up for whatever was lacking.
Wednesday we woke up late because we didn’t get to bed until well after 230am. We finally stumbled out of the house after 12pm and decided to just walk around and do some window-shopping or actually something. Our focus was to go back to all the little walkthrough galleries that we’ve seen walking down streets. Around 2pm we planned to stop and have a late lunch with Eric near his office. So we kept the shops around the Place de la Concorde.
We continue on with our trek and ended up in another small gallery. The lady there spoke almost flawless English right as we walked through the door. Most of the works she had were really small or they were lithographs. As we were about to walk out of the store; on the opposing wall to the entrance, there was a painting that caught my eye. It was a snowy woods scene at sunset. The snow reflected the oranges and pinks in the sky and there between the trees was an old catering truck. It had a little window on the side and smoke stack coming through the roof. And there standing in front of the window, waiting for their little Panini and croque monsieur, was little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. My jaw dropped to the floor. Here is this beautiful painting of winter’s dusk, which could have been done by a great master and the painting takes on a whole new meaning with Red Riding Hood waiting for her Crepe. 
After we left that gallery we had to rush over and meet Eric for lunch. He took us to this small little pre-made food place but then we walked up stairs to these grand salons with the huge windows. It was great. After lunch we stated to head back over to the shopping area to look around some more. When we got closer to the Louvre we came across this new store, which was interesting. The store was presenting its product in a gallery style atmosphere. There are a lot of stores in NYC and SF that do this as well. Clem got excited about all the electronics, so I left him to his toys. 
I put the camera down and he walks away. So I start hunting for a pen and paper to write the name down. While I am looking at the DVD’s he walks past between me and the wall of DVD’s 3 times (mind you there is probably 3 feet between me and the wall). So I finally found the paper and pen and start to write down the name. Out of the corner of my eye I see him running up to me and he grabs my pen and says “No You Cannot Write” – My jaw dropped to the ground and I said “What???? I am just writing down the name” and he promptly replies “No You Cannot Do that here!!!” So I grab my pen out of his hand and he walks away – luckily I had written the name down fast enough;.
Today we’ve decided hit the Eiffel Tower. Come on, we’re tourists whether we like it or not. Like every day we made our way by foot. The only Taxis we have take so far was from the Airport (there is no metro at CDG) and the car took from the Louvre after the shows. I couldn’t be seen walking home after the shows; I had to take a Mercedes like the rest of the Fashion Crowd. LOL – Actually I was really tired after the show. I did a lot of walking and running that morning.
We finally made it over to the Eiffel tower. It was just turning to early evening so dusk was starting to fall. We bought our tickets like everyone else and hopped the elevator like everyone else. When I called my mother the next day and told her we had gone to the tower she asked if we climbed the stairs like all the other nut jobs!!!!! I said no way – we’ve been walking non-stop everywhere since we’ve landed. Now let me just put this into perspective for you, its 395 steps to the first level, its 385 steps to the second level and then its 675 steps to the top level – which we wanted to go to. So needless to say we opted to come out alive on this trek.
I just go back from view a few shows over at the Louvre. I had an invite to see the Elie Saab & Collette Dunnigan shows - so many people and so many people I recognized. I took alot of photos and I will post them later when I write a more detail account of the experience. I was able to sneak into the Valentino show and get down to the pit. I meet Anna Wintour and chatted with Andre Leon Talley. Here is a photo of Anna - without her glasses - very rare at a show. I am going skip Gilles Rosier, two editors I spoke with said that the preview sucked and though the show will be the same. So I am back at the apartment and going to take a nap. Clem just left to meet Chrystelle and Eric to go flower shopping along Siene. Check back soon for more. . . . . .